Explosions, fire rock US oil refinery; gas prices could rise

Explosions and a blaze at the largest oil refinery on the East Coast sent a fireball into the sky and shook homes before dawn Friday, though authorities reported only a few minor injuries and said the air was safe to breathe.

The fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex was deemed contained and controlled but continued to burn late Friday afternoon, said Craig Murphy, deputy fire commissioner.

Five refinery workers were treated for minor injuries, and nearby residents were asked to stay inside.

The cause of the fire was still unclear. Three explosions, felt miles away, went off as the fire worked its way through the tangle of pipes carrying fuel across the complex, Corley said. It happened at the Girard Point refinery, one of two at the PES complex in southern Philadelphia.

The fire happened at a tank containing a mix of butane and propane, Murphy said. The blaze was still being fed by a main, he said, but it was unsafe for workers to access the valve to shut it off. If firefighters extinguished the blaze, the gases would continue to bleed into the atmosphere, he said.

There are no reports of injuries or evacuations after an early morning fire broke out at a 150-year-old refinery complex in Philadelphia. (June 21)

It was the second blaze at the refinery this month, following a June 10 fire in which no injuries were reported.

Gasoline prices in the Northeast could rise over the next few weeks as a result of the explosion, but an increase isn’t likely to last long, said Claudio Galimberti, a refining analyst at S&P Global Platts.

Thick black smoke billowed across the city after the fire started.

Jonathan Triboletti, of Hammonton, New Jersey, saw that smoke and the explosion when he and his mother were driving to the nearby Philadelphia Airport.

“I noticed the sky light up orange ahead of us for maybe 5 or 6 seconds,” he said.

Triboletti said he even felt the heat in the car.

“It kind of made our skin crawl a little bit because we didn’t know what was going on. It was something you normally see in a movie theater,” he said.

It’s unknown whether the explosions will cause any financial strain the oil markets.

“This is obviously not a good thing to happen in a jittery market, but U.S. refined product demand has been relatively weak,” said Jim Burkhard, vice president for oil markets at IHS Markit. “So this is a disruption, but it’s probably not going to cause major problems in a market that is generally well supplied.”